Aftandilian Publishes Op-Ed in The Arab Weekly
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed on how presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rhetoric is affecting his poll numbers.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “Trump’s Bigotry Leading to Drop in the Polls” was published in The Arab Weekly on June 20, 2016.
From the text of the article:
Although presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump scored points with a substantial element of the party’s primary electorate by saying outrageous and offensive things, his recent diatribes against a highly respected judge over his ethnicity has cost Trump points in polls among the general electorate.
Trump won the delegates’ tally in Republican primaries by supposedly “telling it like it is”. This means he not only took pride in being politically incorrect but he played to some people’s worst fears and prejudices by going after Muslims, Hispanics and other so-called undesirables.
Although Trump was denounced by Democrats and some establishment Republicans for such comments, he weathered the political storm because all that counted at the time was winning a plurality of votes in Republican primaries.
Trump indicated that, having secured the nomination, he would act more “presidential”, suggesting he would drop such language and concentrate on policy issues.
That did not happen.
You can read the entire Op-Ed here.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999). Learn more about him here.